09 October 2016

For the most part, I've managed to avoid giving my opinion on FB on this election. I've hidden a lot of people who were unable to keep from spamming their timeline with politics, so I thought it'd be a little hypocritical of me to post something like this there.

I'm not a fan of Hillary Clinton, but I will be voting for her next month. I think a lot of people are hung up on their tribal allegiance, and have allowed confirmation bias to support their position.

I no longer belong to either tribe. The first crack in my loyalty was when David Duke ran against Edwin Edwards. I knew what Edwards was, but voted for him anyway, as the alternative was, well, a Nazi.

I voted libertarian in 1996, because my party loyalty wouldn't let me acknowledge that Bill Clinton was actually a pretty good president. But I didn't want to encourage the Republican party's choice, Bob Dole, who was never going to capture anyone's imagination.

The last straw was in 2004, after it was obvious that the Bush administration had gotten us into a war in Iraq either because they were lying (they knew there were no WMDs) or incompetent (they didn't know there were no WMDs). People make mistakes all the time, but the standard for how certain you need to be is very high when you're starting a war.

So, I don't feel panicked at the notion of Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office. She is qualified for the job. The American government system of checks and balances means any president will struggle to effect dramatic changes. For all of the rhetoric, there's not a huge difference between America today and eight years ago.

I could talk about ACA (Obamacare), but again, I think the rhetoric doesn't match up to the small difference it has made to most peoples' lives.

Anyway, here's the thing about Trump.

1) There is nothing to suggest he is qualified to be president.

2) I don't think he actually would want the job if he knew what the day-to-day life of a president actually involves.

3) His financial ethical standards are, well frankly, absent. He doesn't believe in paying his debts. He thinks that leaving his children in charge of his businesses were he president removes conflict of interest.

4) I suspect he's not really as racist has a lot of his supporters are. But he's, at best, tone deaf to it.

5) He has at best a tenuous relationship with science, facts, truth, consistency and responsibility. That's not true. I don't think he sees any value in any of those things.

6) The latest tape has caused a number of people to "rethink" their position on Trump. I find that astonishing. This tape merely confirms what was pretty evident all along.

Trump's essential position is that the problem with America is there isn't enough privilege for old white guys.

Even if I didn't think Trump was very likely the worst major party candidate for president in our country's history, I'd likely still be voting for Hillary. Trump is a ridiculous circus clown, but he's merely a caricature of how the Republican party has been trending. The party's rejection of science and compromise in favor of pandering, religion, and intolerance means that I no longer vote for any Republican candidate. I'm open to it, but first they'll have to, oh I don't know, acknowledge the possibility that climate change is real.